Seheult

Plaintiff and appellant Russell Seheult appeals from a judgment in a legal malpractice action entered in favor of defendants and respondents Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, LLP, Jeffrey Steiner and David Waite (collectively, the lawyers) after the trial court granted the lawyers' motion for summary judgment. We hold that creation of an enforceable obligation is "actual injury" whether or not attorney fees or other quantifiable costs have yet been incurred in efforts to defeat or limit the liability. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment based on the lawyers' statute of limitations defense.

Seheult describes himself as a "dental surgeon and business investor." In 1995 Seheult and Nu-Western Development Company (Nu-Western) agreed to form a limited partnership to develop an enclosed shopping mall in Redlands, California, to be known as the "Redlands Fashion Center" or "RFC." The lawyers were retained to create a limited partnership between Seheult and Nu-Western, to be called Shannon Brooke Limited Partnership (Shannon Brooke), and to provide other legal services in connection with the RFC project.

During the time the lawyers were working on the partnership…